How do you set up a website with WordPress?
What is WordPress?
The technical definition of WordPress is an open source CMS. CMS stands for Content Management System. Basically, it cuts out a lot of technical work and allows you to start uploading your content with a few easy clicks. According to some statistics, it is used to support 12% of the estimated 1,000,000 biggest websites. It is used most popularly to publish blog websites.
Why use WordPress?
In a word simplicity. You don’t have to know how to write code to publish decent websites using WordPress. Although, some knowledge of how websites get on the web is useful and will let you manipulate the facilities available with WordPress more easily.
What do you need to get started?
You will need a domain name. This is the name of your website. Domain name’s can be bought for around $10. A popular site to buy domains is GoDaddy.com. You will need a hosting account. This is an account that lets you use a little piece of the web where you can keep your website. Very often you can buy and register your domain name in the same place as your hosting account.
Next you will need to upload WordPress onto your domain name. You can do this manually using an FTP program. An FTP program is a piece of software that acts as an interface between the world wide web and your own computer files. It allows you to transfer files you have stored in your computer, to files that are stored with your server host out there in webspace. If you are a beginner this can either be an enlightening experience or a frustrating obstacle. However, learning to use an FTP program is a great bonus as it allows you greater access to your website files. There a many good FTP programs you can download for free such as Filezilla and CoffeeCup. However, a more straightforward way to upload WordPress is to do it automatically. Most host accounts will have a facility that allows you to upload WordPress onto your website with a couple of clicks of the mouse. Fantastico is one such program as a good example.
How do I upload content to my website?
Once you have uploaded WordPress onto your website you can type in your website address and see your website up and running. Initially, what you will see is a generic WordPress website, it needs you to add content; to do this you need to go to your back office, this is where you upload content. You can get there by simply adding /wp-admin to the end of your website’s address. You will then be taken to a login page. WordPress will send you a complicated password to the e-mail address you registered with your host account. You can change this to something more memorable. The default password will be ‘admin’ again you can change this.
Now, inside the back office, you can start to upload content. From here it is fairly straightforward; to change the title from the default ‘My Blog’ simply click on ‘Settings’ and then ‘General’ to be taken to a page where you can change the title. To add a ‘Post’, click on ‘Post’ and ‘Add New’ and type in the title and the text that you want to appear on your website, then, click ‘Publish’. Posts are either written using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) or, by clicking on the HTML tag, you can insert code, for example you may wish to embed a YouTube video. You can do this by finding the embed code under the video and then copy and pasting it into your post. It really is very user friendly.
What’s all the other stuff in the WordPress Menu?
A very important thing to understand are Themes. This is the name given to the files that make the appearance of your website. When you upload WordPress it puts a default theme on your website. You can change this by uploading a different theme. WordPress provides a facility for choosing a range of different themes. Click on ‘Appearance’ then ‘Themes’ click on ‘Install Themes’. From here you need choose your style and search for a theme you like and then follow the simple installation process. Alternatively you can search on the net for the thousands of themes you can download. Some are free, some you will need to buy. There are some very sophisticated designs that you can buy. If you go this route you download the theme to your computer and then upload it to your website via an FTP program installing the file into the WordPress themes file (click through to it via wp-content).
Another important facility that needs to be understood are plugins. Plugins are software applications you can download onto your website. They can perform a myriad of functions for example they can filter spam, help build links e.g to social sites, add forms, send out Tweets and all sorts. Again WordPress allows you to search and install these plugins.
And the other stuff? Click it and see. A little playing around will soon let you understand what’s what. Plus there is a ton of help that WordPress provides, just visit their site. If you are new to website building you will be surprised how quickly you can get great looking results.